Fort Pulaski Set to Commemorate the Immortal 600

Date: February 13, 2015
Contact: Joel Cadoff, [phone] Ext 114

SAVANNAH – Superintendent Melissa Memory announces that the National Park Service will host a special two-day Civil War living history event on Saturday, February 28 & Sunday, March 1, 2015, at Fort Pulaski National Monument. Civil War re-enactors and living historians from around the southeast will be on hand, portraying Confederate prisoners and Union prison guards.

The Immortal 600 were a group of prisoners incarcerated at Fort Pulaski during the fall and winter of 1864-65. These prisoners were Confederate officers who were captured at various battles during the war. While at Fort Pulaski these men were held under an order of “retaliation,” a harsh response to the conditions Union prisoners experienced during the conflict. Thirteen men died at the fort under these severe conditions and are buried outside Fort Pulaski. The Immortal 600 became famous throughout the South for their adherence to principle and for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance under extremely adverse circumstances.

Special guided tours and programs will be offered Saturday, February 28, beginning at 10 AM; the final tour on Saturday will begin at 3:30 PM. Tours on Sunday, March 1, will be offered beginning at 11 a.m.; the special event will conclude with a memorial ceremony to the Immortal 600 beginning at 2 p.m. Special guest speakers include author Mauriel Phillips Joslyn, retired National Park Service park ranger Talley Kirkland, and park Superintendent Melissa Memory. The ceremony will conclude with a rifle salute to the fallen.

Mauriel Phillips Joslyn will also be available for a discussion and signing of her book, Immortal Captives: The Story of the 600 Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy in the Fort Pulaski Sutler Store at 12:00 p.m., on Sunday March 1, 2015.   

An entrance fee of $5 per person is charged; ages 15 years old and under are free. Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on U.S. Highway 80, 15 miles east of Savannah. For more information, please visit the website of Fort Pulaski National Monument at www.nps.gov/fopu or call [phone]. You can also follow the park on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FortPulaskiNPS or like the official Fort Pulaski National Monument Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FortPulaskiNPS.

– NPS –